Air Products to supply LNG heat exchangers for Ichthys project in Australia

4/23/2012

Air Products has signed an agreement with the JKC joint venture (contractor) and INPEX (operator), under which it will supply liquefaction technology and main cryogenic heat exchangers for two process trains to produce 8.4 million tpy of LNG.

The LNG heat exchanger technology will operate in Darwin, Australia, as part of the Ichthys LNG project (INPEX 76% stake, Total 24%).

Production is expected to come on stream by the end of 2016.

"This project extends our presence in Australia, which is the most active area in the world right now in LNG project development, said Jim Solomon, director of LNG at Air Products.

If the pace of activity continues, before too long Australia may be able to lay claim to the title of the world's largest exporter of LNG," he continued.

Spurring this growth is the fact that natural gas usage is increasing in importance on a worldwide basis as a source of clean energy. As a result, Air Products is seeing increased project activity globally, and we see the projected growth for LNG continuing over the next decade.

Under the agreement with JKC and INPEX, Air Products will provide two main cryogenic heat exchangers with a proprietary propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant process using the SplitMR machinery configuration to produce the LNG, it said.

The LNG units will process natural gas from reserves located in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia.

JKC is an engineering joint venture comprised of JGC, KBR and Chiyoda.